Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

and expanding it to "the sum of the x is greater than the sum of the individuals"

and the sum of x squared plus y squared is equal to the square of the hypotenuse in a right triangle
Sorry, I couldn't resist....

and the angle of the dangle is inversely proportional to the heat of the beat... er... amount of waste recycling.

speaking about dangles..................how are those heat pump coils faring DD?

That is starting to sound more like permaculture or sustainable agriculture or "advanced micro-ecosystem design"

Hi,



Trickling bio-filters will remove nitrogen in gaseous form and I'd be very surprised if gravel grow beds didn't do a similar thing due to the percolation of the water as it fills and drains. Carbon dioxide is removed from the water in the same way.

Incidentally, trickling bio-filters are, as the name suggests, full of media and air.....through which the water is 'trickled'....as distinct from bio-filters which contain media and water. In this type of bio-filter the water enters the system at the bottom and overflows from the top of the filter and runs back into the tank.

I couldn't remember where I'd learned this but I've subsequently read snippets about it on the 'net.....and then I remembered that it dates back to the training that I received in my old wastewater treatment days.



Back in the days before Aquaponics was known by that name, it was known as Integrated Aquaculture.

In the 1970's, a group of people known as the New Alchemists (and there were possibly others) developed a system that included fish (tilapia), plants, rabbits, chickens (or it may have been ducks) and worms.

They set up a greenhouse structure (the New Alchemist Ark) where they kept tanks full of water and fish and a three tiered sand grow bed arrangement. If I recall correctly, they pumped the fish water into the top grow bed which contained vegetables. It then drained into the second bed which contained fodder plants which drained into the bottom one which contained worms.

The system was designed so that the fodder plants went to the chickens and rabbits. The chicken and rabbit manure (and guts and skins) went to the worms. The worms went to the chickens and the fish......and so on.

Aquaponics, with its focus on fish and plants, has come into prominence as a narrow version of the Integrated Aquaculture model developed by the New Alchemists.

We're endeavouring to do a similar thing with our system except that we will probably vary the components. At this stage, our integrations will include fish, plants, Japanese Quail, chickens, Black Soldier Flies, duckweed and worms. We'd include rabbits as well but the Queensland government has bowed to vested interests and the fines for keeping meat rabbits are ridiculous.

Gary

Gary, with the rapid breeding of drop bears, the rabbit problem should soon be under control. If anyone ever eat a drop bear before it eat them, I wonder how they taste? It might be a fine addition to the homestead. Watch dog and food source, at least if your quick.

John Todd's stuff is really neat, one of the originators:

http://www.oceanarks.org/ecodesign/

Thanks DD, I had been looking for a those ecological aquaculture setup pics last week, couldn' find my bookmark anywhere.

Great quote Steve, where did you steal that from?

some blokes webite i used to hang out at....................

I always thought the angle of the dangle was equal to the mass of the ass...I stand corrected.